PDF files are typically read-only and can't be easily edited without a PDF editor. For users who rely heavily on the Apple ecosystem, converting PDF to Pages makes it more convenient for us to edit documents and share them among users who also use Mac or iOS devices.
In this article, we will show you 5 efficient ways to convert PDF to Pages on Mac:
| Method 1 | Method 2 | Method 3 | Method 4 | Method 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Work with | Normal PDF, scanned PDF/ Images | Normal PDF | Normal PDF | Normal PDF | Normal PDF |
| How to import PDF to Pages | Support batch PDF to Pages conversion | Support single PDF to Pages conversion | Support batch PDF to Pages conversion | Manually copy and paste the text to Pages | Batch convert PDF to text and paste to Pages |
| Format Reserve | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Click for instructions | Click | Click | Click | Click | Click |
So let’s look at all methods one by one.
Cisdem PDF Converter OCR
Free Download macOS 10.14 or later
Cisdem PDF Converter OCR can perform the PDF-to-Pages conversion directly, with it, you never have to worry about how to convert PDF to Pages or even a scanned PDF to Pages with its OCR capability. It provides a full offline solution for all PDF conversion related problems. Now, please download this tool to convert a PDF to Pages on Mac for a trial.
Key Features of Cisdem PDF Converter OCR for Mac
Pros
Free Download macOS 10.14 or later
Step 1: Upload the PDF File
Launch PDF Converter OCR for Mac and go to "Converter" interface. You can drag and drop to add multiple files directly into the application (up to 200 files). Add or delete the files by clicking the "+" or "-" icon in the lower left corner.
Step 2: Choose the Output Format
Select "All Pages" or the page range to specify the pages before conversion. In the right-side drop down menu, choose the "to Pages" option.
Step 3: Convert PDF to Pages on Mac
For more accurate conversion, click on the Pages Setting icon and choose a priority. Then choose a destination folder to save the file. Finally, click “Convert” to efficiently convert multiple PDFs to Pages simultaneously.
After the conversion is done, you can click on the folder icon to locate the converted Pages file. You can now open Pages directly on your Mac and edit it the way you need.
Now, let’s just compare the converted Pages and the original PDF file. See, notice how well the layout has been preserved here, it can convert PDF to editable pages document while retaining formatting accurately.
Download Cisdem PDF Converter OCR and give it a try on your own now!
Free Download macOS 10.14 or later
Most of the time, the PDF you get will be scanned PDF files. If you’re using a PDF conversion program that has no support for OCR, the converted Pages will be a single image, which is not editable and searchable.
Cisdem PDF Converter OCR makes conversion as simple as possible. It requires no experience for working with OCR modules. And it supports most of the popular OCR languages.
That's it, several clicks and wait for several seconds, you will get your PDF in Pages format, and you will be able to edit the Pages file on your iPad or Mac anytime, anywhere.
If your PDF is small and has no confidential information, we recommend you to use CleverPDF to convert PDF to pages. It offers online free services to create, convert, protect, unlock, compress and organize PDF files. Its PDF Converter helps to convert native PDFs to Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and image formats.
What impress us most is that the quality of the output pages is fairly good, you only need to do small changes manually.
Limitations:
Visit cleverpdf.com and choose the PDF to Pages tool.
Drag and drop a PDF file to CleverPDF or upload PDF from cloud storage devices such as Google Drive and Dropbox.
Then click on the Start conversion to turn your PDF into Pages.
Then download the Pages document to your Mac, Google Drive or Dropbox.
Now, let's just compare the converted Pages and the original PDF file. See, the result is good, though after conversion, the titles are crowded together.
Some users may note that CleverPDF doesn’t support batch process PDFs, which takes more time and effort. Here we show another online free PDF to Pages converter for you. It enables you to batch export PDFs as Pages format, but works on native PDFs only too.
Limitations:
Go to HiPDF PDF to Pages.
Drag and drop PDF files to the program or click Choose File to upload.
Click Convert to start the conversion.
When your task has been completed, they will ask you to enter the email address to log in and download the converted Pages file.
Compared with CleverPDF, the output of HiPDF is not that good, the result came out all scrambled, and you need take some time to manually adjust it.
If you are looking for a built-in solution on macOS that can import PDF to Pages, then preview is what you are looking for. But, Preview only supports converting native PDF to Pages by copying and pasting, and this may lead to format loss. If you need to process a PDF file with a relatively small number of pages, then you can try the following method.
You may encounter a situation where you cannot copy text when using Preview. If your file has too many pages or too much text to copy, you can try to convert it directly to Text format. On Mac, Automator can help you create automated workflow, applications or actions to process PDF files in batch.
You are able to batch convert PDF to text using Automator, in the step 3, drag many files into the right panel. Select all the imported PDFs by holding down the Shift key and click on files simultaneously. Then follow the above steps to finish bulk conversion.
The above ways we show are relying on PDF converters, editors, or even workflows creator. Can I open a PDF in Pages without the help of them? I can definitely answer that this is achievable, but it will not be as convenient as we imagined.
Mac Pages allows users to insert PDF to Pages as images. You have to manually add a multi-page PDF file page by page and the content on the image cannot be changed.
Since iWork Pages cannot open PDF directly, you will need to open an existing Pages file, then insert the PDF file to Pages.
Notes: If the PDF you’ve chosen contains many pages, then only the first page of this PDF will be inserted on the blank page.
You may have noticed there are quite a few solutions to convert a PDF to Pages directly. Most of the guides told you to convert PDF to Word, then save Word as Pages, which takes time and scarifies quality.
All the methods we introduced above support directly convert PDF to pages. Which method you should follow depends on the PDF and your personal needs.
When converting PDF to pages, the most frequently asked question is whether the conversion will cause differences between the original PDF and the converted Pages file, such as format, layout, image quality, font substitution, hyperlink, bookmark, comment, etc.
If maintaining the original formatting is important to you, and you just don’t want to manually refine the output Pages document, we recommend you to use PDF Converter OCR or online sites like CleverPDF. These two methods will preserve hyperlinks and interactive elements. There is no loss of quality, all the images, tables and charts remaining intact.
For offline tools and build-in tools like Preview and Automator, there is no limit on the file size and file number, but for online sites like CleverPDF and HiPDF, they will have different limits on file size and file number, and number of tasks per day.
For normal PDF files, the converted Pages documents can easily be edited. But for scanned PDF files, you need a tool that supports OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, otherwise the converted Pages will be a whole image, which can not be edited.
Yes, Microsoft Word and Google Docs can read Pages documents. However, you need to export the Pages document to.docx or .doc before opening.
Carolyn has always been passionate about reading and writing, so she joined Cisdem as an editor as soon as she graduated from university. She focuses on writing how-to articles about PDF editing and conversion.
Rumir
There was a way to change PDF to pages with the help of Adobe(I am a Adobe user)! Thanks, but is there any better way to improve the file quality using this method?
Keshawn
Way to go on this essya, helped a ton.
Jerem
I usually use Pages to edit document, but I always receive many PDF file from other people. I need a good PDF to Pages converter. This article provides a good solution. Thank you!!!